LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Victor Garate of the University of Dallas and Natasha Benavides of Texas Lutheran University have been selected as the SCAC Male and Female Character & Community Student-Athletes of the Week, respectively, for the week ending Sunday, February 16.
The SCAC Character & Community award was created in 2009 to
honor and recognize the efforts of the
extraordinary student-athletes of the conference who not
only excel athletically on the field, course, court, pool or
track, but also by serving their campus and community.
To view past winners of the award, click here.
VICTOR GARATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, a
first-year guard on the men's basketball team, has been selected
the SCAC Character & Community Male Student-Athlete-of-the-Week
for the week ending Sunday, February 16.
Garate, an Austin, Texas native, is an Education and Spanish major
at the University of Dallas.
While attending Austin Waldorf School in Austin, Texas, Garate
volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of America in south Austin.
He helped the nonprofit in an unpaid capacity during his
upperclassman years, reporting for duty at least twice a week
during the school year and every day in the summer months.
Garate explained that the children arrived every day around 3 to
3:30 p.m. during the school year and went straight to their "power
hour.” It was there, that they did their homework and
educational activities such as math and art for an hour.
“During that time,” Garate said, “I always helped
the six through eight year olds with their math and reading
homework. One objective that I had during power hour was to
challenge the kids. By doing so, they gained more confidence in
accomplishing such feats.”
Garate also coached the middle school basketball team and helped
with the high school and elementary basketball teams at the
club.
“Coaching was a great experience for me,” Garate said,
“not only for my love of coaching, but to see the kids’
work ethics at such a young age and to watch their bonds grow
through sports. I started to see that many of the problems the kids
had with each other slowly were resolved just by playing a team
sport.”
Garate’s drive to volunteer comes from his dedication to
ensuring youths have all the possible resources available to
succeed.
“I have learned that each kid has an insurmountable amount of
potential to be great and change the world for good,” Garate
said. “Helping out at the club is one of the most important
and rewarding things I have done in my life. All the kids want is
love and to know that people care for them.”
Garate shared several instances of impacting the
organization’s children for the better, but noted his
strongest memory occurred in his first days of helping at the
club.
“On my first day at the club, I went in to help the
fourth and fifth grade students with their homework,” Garate
said. “Many of them were reluctant to ask for help, due to me
being there for the first time and them not knowing whether I was
going to come back or not. I saw this little kid alone in the
corner, looking upset and not doing his homework. I went up to him
and helped him out, and played some basketball with him later on.
What struck me most was on the second day when I went to help the
fourth and fifth grade students. He saw me and smiled the biggest
smile I had ever seen, just because I was there to help him again.
I had an epiphany and realized that all these kids needed was
someone to care and someone to help. If we as a community do that,
kids will grow to be great people for their community and
peers.”
After earning his degree from
the University of Dallas, it comes as no surprise
that Garate wants to become a teacher and a basketball coach.
He hopes to continue his work at the Boys and Girls Club of America
in the future.
NATASHA BENAVIDES OF TEXAS LUTHERAN
UNIVERSITY, a senior point guard on the
women's basketball team from San Antonio, Texas, has been selected
the SCAC Character & Community Female
Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week ending February 16,
2014.
Benavides has lettered all four seasons at TLU and has been a
captain for three of those seasons. Off the court, she is an
outstanding student, carrying a 3.86 grade-point average. A
double-major in mathematics and math education with a minor in
psychology, Benavides is a math tutor, a member of the Math Club,
and a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She is also
a member of Pi Lambda Theta (honor society for education majors),
Alpha Chi (the TLU Honors society), and Who's Who Among Students in
American Colleges & Universities.
Outside of campus, Benavides has volunteered with her team and
campus community in TLU community service days "Hot Dawgs" and "Day
of the Dogs." She has also volunteered with her team at Eden-Cross
Retirement Homes and at the MS 150 bike rest station in Seguin.
Benavides was a two-time Academic All-Conference selection in the
American Southwest Conference, and she was a nominee for CoSIDA
Academic All-America honors. She is scheduled to graduate in
December 2014 after completing her student teaching in the fall of
2014.